fellowship men are trained in ways of which they are insensible; spiritual
results are accomplished within them of which they are unconscious. The
Infinite is nowhere more beneficently present than in the strain and
anguish of toil; and the necessity of putting forth one's strength in some
form of activity is not a hardship but a divine opportunity.

To well-conditioned men work is a joy; under normal conditions, for
healthful men, it is always a joy. The spiritual meaning behind the hard
face which toil wears makes itself dimly understood at times, and men sing
at their tasks not only out of pure exuberance of good spirits and sound
health, but because there is something essentially rhythmical and
harmonious in their toil. The song of the sailor at the windlass is a song
of fellowship; an expression of the deepened consciousness of strength and
exhilaration which come from standing together in a joint putting forth of
strength. When a man honestly gives himself to any kind of work he makes
himself one with his fellows in the creative process; he enters into
deepest fellowship with the race. And, as in the intimacy of the family,
in its structure and habit, there lies a very deep and rich educational
process, so in the community of work there lies a training and enrichment
which go to the very centre of the individual life. The ideal development
involves harmonious adjustment of the man to the world, through complete
development of his personality and through complete unity with the race;
and the deepest and most fruitful living is denied those who fail of
entire unfolding in either of these hemispheres, which together make up
the perfect whole. In genuine culture solitude and society must both find
place; a man must secure the strength and poise which enable him to stand
alone, and he must also unite himself in hand, mind, and heart with his
fellows. In isolation the finer parts of nature wither; in fellowship they
bear noble fruitage. To work in one's day with one's fellows; to accept
their fortune, bear their burdens, perform their tasks, and accept their